In addition to the discussions that might get a bird flu vaccination programme underway, FairPlay has urged agriculture minister John Steenhuisen to intervene on another bird flu control measure – the payment of compensation to farmers for chickens culled during bird flu outbreaks.
In a statement to the Independent on Saturday, FairPlay founder Francois Baird said both measures fell under Steenhuisen’s agriculture department, which was not authorising them.
“These problems are delaying essential action against another bird flu outbreak, which will cause more disastrous losses for poultry farmers, raise the price of chicken and eggs, and add to hunger and misery in poor communities,” Baird said.
“Compensation is regarded in other countries as an important bird flu control measure because it encourages chicken farmers to report outbreaks rather than hide them, which allows the disease to spread.”
The department has so far refused to compensate farmers for the chickens it orders them to cull during bird flu outbreaks. Its reasoning, that sick birds have no value and compensation is thus zero, was rejected by the High Court last year, but the department is appealing against that decision.
Baird pointed out that the importance of a vaccination programme, currently being stalled by the government, had been emphasised by the poultry industry and by veterinarians and scientists during a FairPlay webinar on the subject.
Izaak Breitenbach of the SA Poultry Association (SAPA) had explained that the methods currently used to control bird flu – stringent biosecurity measures at poultry plants and culling infected birds – were no longer sufficient. Vaccination had to be added to these control measures to avoid another bird flu disaster.
The 2023 bird flu outbreak cost the poultry industry R9.5 billion.
